Of the Moment

No single musical category is big enough to hold Eugene Chadbourne, the improvisation-loving maker of song and noise.

From North Carolina, he’s a renowned avant-garde veteran with hillbilly inklings. He has played alongside Derek Bailey, John Zorn, his art-punk band Shockabilly and countless others, and he never leaves his sense of humor at home.

Fans of music from the outer, non-mainstream reaches can be thankful that Chadbourne has made Ventura a regular stopover on his travels, having appeared here twice in the past year.

Most recently, he was at Art City II with the ad hoc ensemble he calls the Insect and Western Party.

At the close of his Ventura debut at the Daily Grind last fall, he ignored his usual instruments--the guitar, banjo and “electric rake”--and instead “played” the metal magazine stand in the room. It was a perfectly natural, spontaneous act, a Chadbourne-ian moment.

This weekend, he’ll be in town for two (count ‘em) shows, in what presenter Jeff Kaiser describes as a “Eugene Chadbourne Labor Day Extravaganza.”

Chadbourne returns to the Daily Grind on Friday night, in a free solo performance that may or may not include magazine-rack manipulations.

In a more official concert setting, he will play Sunday night at Art City II, in collaboration with two turntable artists: Don Bowles and Hammer. He’s a welcome addition to Ventura’s fringe culture.

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The Sound of Fall Falling: Summer is quickly taking its leave. Like clockwork, the brochures started materializing, laying out the cultural calendar of the coming classical music season. From this vantage point, it looks like we’re in store for a healthy and varied musical bounty.

Maestro Boris Brott’s fine and fledgling New West Symphony, which braved hard fiscal storms last year and had to make changes in its schedule accordingly, enters its third official season with a nicely varied roster.

Any orchestral season that includes two pieces by Stravinsky, this century’s greatest composer, is on the right track.

We’ll hear the “Firebird Suite,” along with those other picturesqueries, Groffe’s “Grand Canyon Suite” and Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” at the opening concerts, Oct. 16 and 17, at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, respectively. Centennial celebrant George Gershwin gets his due respect Nov. 20 and 21; and the perennial chestnut, Handel’s “Messiah,” lands in Thousand Oaks on Dec. 13.

Looking into the next year, on Feb. 5 and 6, the program includes Stravinsky’s Danses Concertantes, and works by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. The operatic muse comes to the county for a stage production of Puccini’s “Tosca” on March 12 and 13.

The orchestra teams up with both the Ventura County Master Chorale and the Los Robles Master Chorale for another perennial, Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” on the closing program, May 21 and 22.

Wagner’s “Overture to Die Meistersinger,” and, for 20th century’s sake, John Adams’ delightfully loopy “Shaker Loops” are on the program as well.

The New West schedule also reflects an expansion into a mini chamber-music series at the Simi Valley Performing Arts Center, a fine space for chamber music.

The series kicks off Sept. 27 with a French menu of Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc, under the title “From Paris With Love.”

Other self-evident programs include “Amadeus to Hollywood” on Nov. 8, and “America the Beautiful” on Feb. 21.

Also on the periphery of the New West season, proper, is the always enjoyable “Discovery Artists” concert, on Jan. 15 and 16, in which young artists of note show their developing talent.

The Ventura County Master Chorale calls its season “Voices Rising,” and kicks off Oct. 3 at the Community Presbyterian Church in Ventura with a performance of Ventura-based composer John Biggs’ unique oratorio, “Web of Life,” based on Native American texts.

They chorale will tackle Mozart’s Requiem at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo on Dec. 20, guest-conducted by Paul Salamunovich.

In a welcome operatic venture in Ventura, the Master Chorale will be part of the production of Aaron Copland’s opera “The Tender Land,” at Ventura College in March.

The Los Robles Master Chorale’s season opens Oct. 17 at the Civic Arts Plaza, with “Oh! Opera! Great Scenes from Great Opera,” and continues with “A Christmas Celebration” on Dec. 4 and 6 at the Moorpark College’s Performing Arts Center.

Next year, guest conductor Sir David Willocks will take over from founding conductor James Stemen and lead a program called “Treasures of England” at the St. Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks on March 13. And, as mentioned, “Carmina Burana” closes the season in May, with a multi-organizational bang.

BE THERE

Eugene Chadbourne, Friday at 9 p.m.; the Daily Grind, 607 E. Main St. in Ventura. Free. (805) 641-1679. With turntable artists Don Bowles and Hammer, Sunday at 8 p.m. at Art City II, 31 Peking St. in Ventura. $6.